Today, we present you another article in our new category “My Top 5”. James Delbridge from Canadian Metal band Lycanthro, who gave us an interview two weeks ago, tells us about his favourite albums of all time. Enjoy reading!

1. Triumph – Allied Forces

Triumph is easily my favourite band of all time. They embody everything I love musically. High vocals, melodic and heavy, and diverse. Their album Allied Forces is easily my favourite. It’s all killer no filler, every song is 10/10. The reason this is at my #1 is because they mean a lot to me personally as their music has helped me through a lot of dark times with their uplifting and optimistic lyrics. Also it can be said that with songs like “Fight the Good Fight” that these guys are proto-Power Metal as well. Overall, it’s a perfect album to me and check it out, if you haven’t heard it before.

2. Rainbow – Rising

This is the album that arguably started Power/Epic Metal. Every track is memorable and masterfully written, and each track is nothing like the other. Dio’s vocals are the best in his career in my opinion, Ritchie Blackmore’s guitars are of course top-notch, and the drums by Cozy Powell (especially at the beginning of “Stargazer”) and keys by Toney Karey are very underrated as well. Overall, it’s another perfect album.

3. Judas Priest – British Steel

I picked this one mainly for nostalgia, there are other Priest albums I listen to more but this one is pretty much the album that got me into Metal. All the songs are memorable and well-written. I remember – when I was little – stumbling across the Judas Priest performance of “Living After Midnight” on my dad’s Live Aid DVD and thought they were the coolest band ever so that’s how I ended up getting this album! Pure classic!

4. Queensrÿche – Operation: Mindcrime

I’m a huge fan of concept albums, music is such a great way to convey a story and a lot of Metal and prog albums have showcased some of the most unique and gripping stories I’ve ever heard. But nothing touches Queensrÿche‘s Operation: Mindcrime for me. Not only is the music top-notch, but the story is so engaging and you actually care about the characters and you want to see what happens next in the story. There’s a lot of musical diversity in this album, too, which I love. “Suite Sister Mary” is my favourite Queensrÿche song, it is so emotional, dark and epic. Another perfect album to me!

5. Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1

This last spot was tough, I was thinking of albums from Manowar, Blind Guardian etc… But I went with Keeper Part 1 from Helloween again mainly because of the nostalgia. They were the first band I ever came across that was Power Metal. I remember my dad mentioning the name Helloween (because he said he had a cassette of them years ago) and I immediately looked them up on YouTube mainly because I thought the name was cool. As soon as I heard “Halloween” I was blown away, aside from Rob Halford I never heard someone sing like that, and that’s when I knew that’s the kind of vocalist I wanted to be. Years later I briefly met Michael Kiske and I was starstruck! I told him he’s one of my vocal heroes and he stuck out his fist to me for a props and said “Hell yeah man!”, haha he was really nice. So even though now I listen to/like bands like Blind Guardian more, this album is what started my love for Power Metal and that’s why I included it!